Art

‘Hairy Canary’ T-Shirt Illustration

| George Coghill

 I just finished up a t-shirt illustration – ‘The Hairy Canary‘ – for mail-order/catalog company What On Earth for their pub t-shirts line.

The basic premise of the t-shirt designs are as follows: the artist is given a choice of bar/pub names to choose from, and from there a design is worked up to go with the name. I believe all the bars & pubs are actual places, but these aren’t officially sanctioned or anything.

From the list I was given, the name ‘Hairy Canary’ just jumped out at me and I knew it was a theme that would spark a cool illustration.

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High-Contrast Line Art Illustration Style: Self-Inspiration

| George Coghill

Sometimes (and probably most of the time) merely seeing how an effect is achieved will offer no clues as to what it’s like to create that effect for yourself. Copying or mimicking the effect can help, but those moments where it works within your own artwork should be explored the moment they happen.

When these chance moments appear, when you have that ‘a ha!’ moment, be sure to dig deeper. I’ll share with you a recent ‘eureka’ moment I had while working on a t-shirt illustration project for a client.

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Free ‘Flatting’ Photoshop Plugin For Comic Artists

| George Coghill

Just stumbled across these handy – and free – Photoshop plugins which should be a huge time-saver for comic artists who ink & color their pages in Photoshop. A process also known as ‘flatting’.

These have to be a huge productivity booster to any artist working with coloring line art in Photoshop, not just comic book artists and the like.

I can already envision many applications for these in my workflow, even though I am primarily a vector artist.

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Monk/Friar With Beer Keg – Cartoon Mascot Illustration

| George Coghill

Cartoon monk mascot with beer (thumbnail)I recently finished up this ‘Theology On Tap’ cartoon character mascot/logo project for a youth ministries client.

The client is a youth ministries minister, and his new program is focused on bringing discussions of theological matters into more casual settings to try and reach additional young people.

The artwork is intended to be used on various advertising and promotional materials, as well as a t-shirt design.

I thought it odd at first, but I suppose there’s nothing really wrong about talking about religious matters in a bar, right? And I suppose a minister knows the deal. My only concern was to create a great illustration for him and his project.

Anyways, read on for an in-depth overview of the process to create this cartoon character mascot/logo from start to finish, including unused sketches created along the way.

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‘Girl In The Moon’ Pin-Up Cartoon Illustration T-Shirt Available

| George Coghill

Cartoon pin-up girl in the moon t-shirt illustration designI finally got around to getting one of my favorite personal cartoon pin-up illustrations — the ‘Girl In The Moon‘ — available  for purchase over at my Zazzle store.

I have been meaning to get more artwork up there available for purchase, but recently client work has been pretty much taking up all my hours in the day.

Already available are some devil girl pinup illustration t-shirts, stickers, keychains and other items.

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Free Photoshop Brush: Stumpy Pencil

| George Coghill

Cartoonist Mike Foran has a couple of cool number 2 pencil Photoshop brushes – free to download – that I stumbled across the other day. For some time now I have been on the casual lookout for a Photoshop brush that mimicked a regular-ol’ number 2 pencil. Seems Foran was on that line of thought as well.

Foran’s brush has a nice line quality, varied from thick to thin based on your Wacom tablet pressure, and has a slight angle similar to a flat-worn pencil tip.

The brush also has a nice light feel at light pressure, and darkens quickly with pressure added. The texture and look of the brush marks/pencil lines is perfect.

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The Animator’s Survival Kit

| George Coghill

The Animators Survival Kit instructional DVD setThis Animator’s Survival Kit DVD set from Oscar-winning animator Richard Willams looks like a great resource for those animators out there. Personally, I do not have the patience for animation, but it’s fascinating to me.

This DVD set is a companion to Williams’ highly-rated Animator’s Survival Kit book. The site doesn’t seem to indicate if the book is included with the DVD set, but it seems not to be.

Richard Williams was awarded two Oscars for the animation on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit“. He directed and designed Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman and all the new characters for the Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg production.

The set isn’t cheap at £634.04 (or about $1,252.42 for us U.S. folks as of the date of this post).

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