New Stuff To Look At!

It's been quite a while since I got behind the tablet and freed an illustration from my head.  This idea has been swirling around for a while.  I think it's original, but you never know nowadays.  I wanted to challenge myself to draw a woman.  Women are really tough to draw, they've got angles and curves that I can never hope to fully understand.

That was meant to sound endearing.  No?

Anyway, my interest lay in trying to successfully draw a woman, everything after that was just fun and games.  I had plans to draw a DJ spinning records a long time ago, but scrapped the illustration early on.  The idea was reintegrated into this new piece.  Click the image to see it full sized.

Additionally, many of you know that I am currently out of work.  The firm I was working for hit hard times and went into survival mode, laying everyone off except the top brass.  In an effort to help organize my portfolio and house my resume, Amanda has helped me in creating a website.

http://www.nickbruhn.com/

For now, I'm going to continue to post new artwork on this blog, as well as in the 'artwork' section of my new site.  Eventually my website will co-opt this blog entirely.  Please check out my website and let me know what you think.

Also, if you know of any solid Architecture/Design/Illustration work in the Austin area, let me know.  Thanks, pass this along if you like it.

A Frog, Continued

Been feeling uninspired lately.  Maybe it's because we're watching The Wire, season 4.  That show just sucks the life force right out of my body.  Don't get me wrong, it's probably the best television ever produced, but it is also soul devouring. 

I have a couple ideas floating around.  My homework is to learn how to draw gatling guns, seascapes, and manatees (dugongs more specifically).  But, despite these ideas I haven't been able to produce much over the last week. 

On the writing front things are going better.  I've had a couple revelations recently.  Writers always say, "Write what you know."  I've been ignoring that in a big way concerning one vital piece of the story.  I realized my mistake and went back and made some changes.  I'm from Minnesota, I needed to embrace that.  I'm being cryptic, but you'll see.

My Mom and Aunt are visiting Amanda and I this weekend, so I don't expect to get much work done.  Look for an excerpt to be posted by week's end. 

Here is a variant of the frog I drew earlier, click to make bigbigbig:

 

Drey's Logo

Drey's logo has a complicated beginning.  I knew I wanted to do a logo for Drey because he's shared a lot of his art with me, and we've spent long hours discussing creativity and how to stay sane.  Not to mention he's been very helpful with my writing projects as well.  He didn't ask for a logo, and I didn't offer.  That's not really how he operates.  In any case, I knew I wanted him to be near the top of the list.

At first, my brainstorming produced a picture of a spider, I didn't know where it would lead, but that's where my mind went.  Probably because Drey hates spiders and I'm a sadist.

At the same time I was sketching boxers for some reason.  I like boxing, I know I need to work on drawing humans.  So I had these two sketches, when I started working on the actual file, the boxers came first.  I drew two men fighting.  It was alright, but the second dude just didn't fit.  I stopped working on that one and started up the spider.  It wasn't working either.  Frustration ensued.  I went back to the boxers, scrapped the second dude and the spider idea, and stared at the half empty canvas.  I fiddled with a few ideas, but the one that stuck was to have my boxer fighting a squid.  20,000 leagues style.  I guess I was still on a nautical kick after Amanda's logo.

The squid was sketched, pass after pass saw it getting further and further away from reality, and closer to some hideous Lovecraftian monstrosity.

Here are the results, click to make bigbigbig:

I like the whole thing.  The monster is pretty rad, I used a gorilla's mouth as reference for how to draw a good howling mouth.  I used the same pustule technique from Amanda's octopus on Drey's monster.  I like the idea of somebody boxing a monster.  Amanda says I was unconsciously drawing myself when I drew the boxer.  Probably true, although I'm in better shape and have a beard.  Also, she thought the background colors reminded her of some country's flag.  Neither of us could think of which one it was.

No variations on this one yet, although I've got some ideas.

A Frog, suddenly

I've been working on this damned spider illustration for a couple of days now.  I got sick of looking at it, erased the whole thing, and sketched a frog instead.  I liked it, so spent some time and made a pretty little picture out of it. 

This one isn't a logo for anyone, just a frog I drew for some reason.  I've got an idea for a cool variation on it, we'll see if it coalesces. 

Frog, click to make bigbigbig:

I drew hundreds of tiny little circles to detail his skin in a different way than I normally would.  I like the effect.  Amanda isn't crazy about the orange face, but I think it fits.  He's pretty simple, no fancy techniques here. 

Next post is Drey's Logo, for real this time.

Scott's Logo

By this point, I'd decided that I was going to do a logo for any of my friends that asked.  As an added challenge I was going to ask them to give me a list of the likes/dislikes to consider while designing.

Scott was the first to jump when I offered.  I asked him what his main interests were.  He said, "Politics, model trains, buffalo steak, and golf."

Of course, those elements all flow naturally together.

My immediate though was to recreate those classic presidential profile shots, and add some sort of twist.  I knew Lincoln would be one of the presidents, but at first I thought the other would be Washington.  I actually sketched out the design with Lincoln and Washington, but decided they didn't really have an interesting dynamic between them; a modern president would be much better.  That led me to Nixon.  The first design had their tongues sticking out and touching to create a bridge that a train was rolling across, but I wasn't crazy about it.

Here is what I ultimately came up with, click to make bigbigbig:

I did the whole thing, and was somewhat satisfied by the results, but something was missing, that's when I added the barf.  All of a sudden the whole thing pulled together.

The trains took forever to draw.  I finished the green one, took stock, liked what I saw, and prepared to draw a second one.  I got a few lines into a second, different train, then realized that they were going to be small and all I really needed to do was copy the first train and modify it a bit.  Same result, half the time.

Variation number 2:

I did away with the trains, not a smart move.  This one ended up alright, but boring.  Really, I just wanted to mess around with a monochromatic design.

Variation number 3:

This one was fun.  At first I lined them both up facing the same direction, but left them blue.  I was going to mess with having different stuff coming out of their mouths, but I multiplied them a few time, liked what I saw, and kept going.  Amanda said, "make them a rainbow", so I played with some other color schemes then added the rainbow barf.  I love the name plate on this one.  I wish I could take credit for that amazing font, but all I did was manipulate the kerning and size so that the first and last names lined up, then scrunched them so they blended together.

Let me know what you think.

Next post, Drey's surprise logo.

Discouraged/Encouraged

I wish there were more hours in the day.  Here's the deal, Universe, either you inject more time between sunup and sundown, or you give me the ability to regenerate like a starfish.  That way I'll at least be able to cut off my arm and regrow another me.  If that's what it takes, I'll do it.  I've got so much stuff I want to do, and it's all awesome.  There isn't anything that I can easily eliminate to make room for something else.

I'd rather you go with the former though, and just make more time, because the other solution still requires me to spend 70% of my awake time at the office.

Until something changes I'm stuck trying to fit a minimum of one hour writing, one hour reading, one hour illustrating, and all the rest of the death-prevention stuff that I can't avoid.  All the while trying to balance being selfish with enjoying my amazing relationship (maybe that fits into the death-prevention category).

So, while I'm making great strides in the races towards visually artistic satisfaction, there is a cheetah made of Times New Roman 10pt gaining on me fast.  I wrote a good chunk on Tuesday, tweaked a bit on Wednesday, and just finished 500 words a minute ago.  But that doesn't feel like much for an entire week's worth time.

Still, that's something.  Forward progress.  I think I finished Chapter 5 today.  I'll know for sure this weekend when I read back through it.

Cheers to all those that know just what I'm feeling.

Amanda's Logo

After Luke and Jeff got their pictures, and responded positively, I felt a bit more confident about the whole endeavor.  The most important person in my life hadn't yet gotten a logo, so she was the only option for what to work on next.

I wanted to do something simple, but bold, and it needed to be a challenge.  I liked the results of my first few projects, but they didn't really push my limits.

I've never drawn an octopus before.  I spent some time looking at google images, figuring out how their anatomy works.  The sketching and rough work went well, but took a long time.  The hiccups came when I was drawing the final outlines.  I find that a variety of bold line weights can turn a mediocre drawing into a statement.  I work with detailed building drawings all day long, and line weight is one of the most important aspects of visual clarity.  In architecture, the line weights have to be extremely clear and precise to 'tell the story' of the construction.  I guess that is probably where I learned the value of strong lines.

Anyway, I did the octopus' outlines, and they didn't work at all.  Too thick, too consistent.  I had to go through each limb individually and use a few different weights, and feather the edges to get it right.  I think it made all the difference in the world.

Here is the original, click to make bigbigbig:

I'm very happy with the results.  I had a lot of fun creating the planks that her name is written on.  The little green orbs are a sort of abstract representation of the suckers lining it's tentacles.  It's amazing how just three simple layers: Wash color, shade color, and highlight can make something pop.

Amanda loved it, she loved the color of the octopus (so do I) and said, "He has sad eyes"

Here is Variation number 2:

Simple color swap.  I haven't done any crazy variations on Amanda's drawing yet.

As I write this, I realize that probably the most important element of this kind of drawing is the composition.  I spent a lot of time making sure that all the limbs were spread out and arranged in a way that complimented the structure of the drawing.  That goes for the placement of the planks as well.

Hope you like it.  Leave a comment if you're so compelled.

Next post, Scottie2Hottie's logo.