Raging Thumbtack

Political Logos

2011-11-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama

George W. Bush

Sarah Palin

France

2011-11-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

A logo for France. FRANCE!!

Melting

2011-11-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Physical typography done for my Digital Design midterm

With this project, we had to select a word from the poem Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams that we felt best described the overall content. We were compose the word in a way that we felt interprets the poem. I chose "melting" because I've always been fascinated by the story of Icarus. The idea of someone enjoying the bliss of flight and having profound joy with his newfound freedom, only to have it all ripped from him because he aimed too high is something anyone can empathize with. He aimed high, got a taste of pure joy, then had it taken from him.

I chose the word "melting" because I felt it captured the feeling of Icarus's tragedy and also provides a distinct visual relative to the story. Constructing it, I used hot glue on a poster board, and melted a red crayon over it. I chose a cursive font because I thought it would fit the word better. For the color, I chose dark red because I wanted it to be reminiscent of seal wax. The melting sealed his fate and forever shut the door on him so he would never be able to attain his dreams. I tried to capture his descent, both physical and emotional.

Evolve

2011-11-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

A typography exercise for my digital design class

Wedding Drawings

2011-10-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

My sister asked me to do 14 drawings for her wedding to serve as the table cards so people know where to sit. She basically wanted parodies of things she/they enjoyed with them as the characters.

Good Typography

2011-10-06T20:00:00.001-07:00

Awesome indeed! This advertisement really caught my eye, mainly because it's freaking gigantic! I also really liked the design and layout of it all. The short and sweet lure of the good review is enormous and simplistic. Heck, I had no idea it was just a message letting us know they're renovating and I was instantly captivated. The shiny gold letters may have played a role in that. I also quite like how the text goes from super large to small to smaller. It hooks you with the large, awesome quote, draws your eye to the source, then you can't help but want to read the rest of it. Overall, I think it's really good if it captured me so well. I'm just lucky it wasn't an ad calling for the support of releasing known murderers and rapists unto the world or I'd feel really bad!

Oh Shakespeare! How much of my money have I wasted here on textbooks alone? A lot. Could it be due to the attractive typography of the store front?? Probably not, but it is pretty nifty! It's really simple, yet aesthetically pleasing and fitting to the store. By sticking with a serif font, they give the feeling of the old times, which I believe is associated with plenty of book stores (to me, at least). The store name is large and takes up all the vertical space available, while the rest of the text is smaller and stacked next to it. I don't know why, but there's something really amazing about that.

I think I like this one because I think I have a penchant for stacked text with varying sizes. This one in particular has a very modern feel, most likely due to the transparent glass background and the skinny letters (I think that with this design, they would've been perceived as modern regardless of whether or not the font was serif of sans serif). I honeslty have no idea who Jean-Claude Biguine is, but it's pretty clear the place is a hair salon because the store has a glass front, allowing people to peer in at any time. The title layout is simply attractive and probably reflects the fact that they give sleek, modern haircuts. Overall a success in typography, I'd say, as it matches the salon's overall theme.

I've always liked the UNIQLO logo; it's simple, attractive, and instantly recognizable. Though, I've always liked the Japanese version better mainly because the squareness of the characters really fits well with the squareness of the logo. The romanized version is simply the phonetic spellings of the Japanese characters stuffed into the square. While not bad, the Japanese one is simply better. It's very simple and is comprised only of straight lines, which I think looks great. It give sit a sleek, modern look, which reflects the store and its contents. A success, I say.

Last, but not least, is a standard Subway sign. It's pointing peoples' way to the exit and to the other trains in the station by using the standard Helvetica font. I think that it's so simple and straightforward that it's good. The Exit, probably the most important thing to show, is encased in a red box, with the "Exit" text bold and taking up all the vertical space it can. The rest of the information is listed very simply on the side, perfectly spaced vertically for ease of recognition and understandability. The trains are listed in a perfect 2x2 grid, and next to the arrow pointing the way. Overall very simple and straightforward, which I like!

Bad Typography

2011-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Spotted on the 6 train headed uptown in the morning, I found myself staring blankly at this ad for several minutes. "Why are those R's backwards," I thought to myself. I also wondered why they were white, standing apart from the rest of the title. It seemed like strange aesthetic choices that didn't serve to improve the advertisement at all. The font served its purpose of providing a horror-esque feel, along with the choice of red font. However, it felt to me like the addition of the white, backwards R's only left me confused, detracting from the overall advertisement. To improve it, I would simply flip them so they aren't backwards, and color them red, like the rest of the title.

Don't mock my Photoshop skills!! What? You weren't? Oh. Well, anyway, this is my improvement on the advertisement. Basically, I just flipped the R's and made 'em all red-like to match the rest of the title. It looks a lot better to me (probably because of my amazing photomanipulation techniques)!

Now this flyer, spotted on the third floor of Hunter West, made me laugh. It's just formatted so strangely that the thing it's trying to advertise is lost completely (to me, at least). The "STOP BY FOR FREE" does an adequate job of grabbing your attention with big, bold letters, but then for some reason, the font size drops by more than half when listing the things that are supposed to be free - the things that are supposed to lure people in. The font then re-increases in size for the "INFORMATION" part, which I believe is one of the more unappealing things you can choose to spotlight in order to get people to come to an event. The font size then becomes large and bold again for "SCIENCE OR MATH TEACHER," which ends up becoming the second thing I see after the "STOP BY FOR FREE" part due to the size and boldness of the font. My eyes were basically zig-zagging all over the flyer because of the font size inconsistencies. They seem to be emphasizing the wrong bits of information here, and are just confusing people who may come across this flyer.

For this one, I chose to stick to dear ol' Helvetica simply because I believe the content would speak for itself, and the flyer's main purpose should be to inform people of free pizza. Oh, and the job information and scholarships and whatnot. I tried to highlight the important information by making them bigger and bolder, while keeping the info small (because if they're looking for the info, they're already hooked; no need to make it super large). Also, I felt like the wording was kinda nonsensical - they tell you you're coming for "INFORMATION" as if it's a bigger draw than free pizza. What fools! And they made the supposed lure of the whole thing in the smallest font of the page. Ridiculous! My version hopefully rectified that.

This flyer, also found on the 3rd floor of Hunter West is an example of bad photography. Wait, I mean bad typography (...yeah, and photography; I'm terrible). I don't really understand the font choice, as it doesn't seem to match the content. "Speak out..." is in a cracked, bold font, which kind of makes me think of some sort of violent earthquake. I think it should be inciting inspiration, encouraging people to fight for their rights, but the font doesn't seem to be cutting it. Then, there's the alternating fonts in the bottom highlighting issues they are speaking up about. It seems like an odd choice, as it just makes the flyer look way too busy. In fact, I just noticed that there are about 10 different fonts being used on this one flyer alone. It really makes it look unappealing and somewhat difficult to read because you don't know if one thing of higher importance than the other. It's an overall mess.

In my rendition, I changed the entire flyer so that it only has one font: Impact. I feel that it sends the right message in that it's calling for concern, outrage, and action. I removed all the unnecessary text on the sides, as this only served to confuse and distract from the main issue. I made the important points larger than the rest in order to emphasize their importance. Keeping the overall design simple, it can properly convey its message without it getting lost in the sea of fonts and poor design.

Now this one just confused me. ...much like the others, I guess. Anyway, I found this when walking down 3rd Avenue. It was on the side of the sign of toy store (whose name escapes me at the moment, if I ever knew it at all). The font does not excite me. And I think a sign for a toy store should excite me (because I am an overgrown child). It seems more like a Halloween store, to be honest, with the orange background and complimentary blue font. Also, I have no idea what "Very Good Toys East" is supposed to mean, because that is not the name of the store. ...Perhaps they're trying to say that they're very good. The font is overall dull and would not appeal to children, in my opinion. And I just realize... that's Comic Sans. I remember reading somewhere that you should never use Comic Sans. Ever.

To improve it, i chose a more fun, kid-friendly font. I also changed up the formatting so it doesn't just look like they typed it out on a template and divided it into two lines simply because they didn't have enough space. I also broke the words up, adding extra emphasis on the "TOYS," to lure sweet, innocent children into the store. Little do they know that this is in fact a butcher shop, ha ha ha ha ha (kidding). I also drew attention away from the "East" because it was just confusing to have them all with equal importance and just caused me to pronounce it all as a sentence (kinda like, "The very good toys are east").

Intersection Floral Design right across the street from Hunter. The font does not suit the content whatsoever. Although they may cater to our floral needs, the font suggests that they might also sell hardware, or something. The choice of a bold, serif font seems like a poor decision because in no way does the font reflect the beautiful flowers you may get here for a loved one. The font seems more reminiscent of Home Depot than anything (though, I suppose you can buy plants at Home Depot, but that just isn't the same). The font should be more delicate, probably a sans serif font or something in cursive.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my improvement on their title design. All I did was change the font! It looks much more elegant and friendly, and less like they're going to shove the flowers where the sun don't shine (which would probably kill the flowers, because from what I hear, flowers need sunlight to survive). The font has more of a "floral" feel to it, and it seems much less imposing than the original bold, serif font.

Composition and Shape - Found Pictures

2011-09-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Serenity

Growth

Anger

Loneliness

Busy-ness

Intimacy

Composition and Shape

2011-09-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Serenity

Growth

Anger

Loneliness

Busy-ness

Intimacy

Dante WIP

2011-01-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have trouble working things to completion

regency progress 2

2011-01-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

Was hating how it was coming out.... so I changed a lot.

There's still something about the initial sketch that I prefer over all of these. I'm working on this way too much.

regency progress

2011-01-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

slowly but surely

..not done yet, btw

regency WIP

2011-01-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

Giving the whole one layer painting thing a shot. Pretty enjoyable!

reffing the dress. rest is from imagination!

Paint tool Sai

Color + Silk Screening

2010-12-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share some work from my color class and my silk screening class this semester. Apologies for the shitty phone-cam pics.

procrastination

2010-12-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

I should really be doing my color assignments...

P.S. Remind me to finish this sometime soon

Paint tool Sai

creature quickie

2010-11-03T01:38:00.000-07:00

Just realized I hadn't uploaded anything in a while, so here's a quickie I did while waiting for a friend to log onto Demon's Souls (PS3).

In other news, I'm sick and haven't had my voice for the past 4 days. Also, I almost passed out in school yesterday (Monday), but still managed to do my Japanese presentation skit thingy and take a midterm. Good times!

speed sketch

2010-09-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

A speedy speed sketch done on OpenCanvas a few days ago. Lighting was not thought out at all, haha.

an exercise in getting back to my old self

2010-08-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

new task: Memorize one person a day. Draw the person when you get home based on the memorized traits.

This is actually a step back from what I used to do about a year ago. I used to pretty much pay attention to every single thing's traits, thinking about how everything would be drawn. I stopped because it fried my brain; I couldn't actually see anything past physical attributes anymore because the process became unconscious. I did get better at drawing, but, you know, my brain and stuff. Might not try that again. The new task might be a way of toning it down and still working up that Sherlock Holmes-esque observation skills. Plus a good way to work on my memory.

sudden realization

2010-08-18T00:39:00.000-07:00

I HATE WORKING DIGITALLY. Drawing digitally, at least. Something about it makes me obsess over every tiny detail. Which is oddly the OPPOSITE of what I do with pencil and paper. Kinda. Maybe. ...I just hate drawing with this fucking tablet.

drawing observation

2010-08-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

I draw significantly better with a regular old wooden pencil. Which is fucked up because 98% of the time, I use this one 0.3 lead mechanical pencil. This whole sharpening deal is kinda lame, though. Plus it's harder to erase. I am totally awful at varying the media I use, by the way.

I should really accompany these posts with scans/pictures that illustrate what I'm talking about. I blame it on my shitty scanner. And the fact that it's all the way on the other side of the room. And my lacking a non-cellphone camera.

sketchbook observation

2010-08-13T05:26:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that I almost always have an "unwind page" in my sketchbook after working on bigger pieces. I also noticed that these pages are probably where I'm at my best, with looser, more random drawings. I need to work on my compositions, and a lot lot lot of stuff. I think it's time to start practicing again.

Oh, and I should start seeking out requests again. Or maybe I shouldn't. I've gotta think up 20 drawings involving my sister and her fiancée for the table card thingies for her wedding. Oh boy.

Ramona Flowers

2010-08-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Done! All done in Paint Tool Sai. Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim circa Volume 1. Her head glows sometimes. Circles are my enemy. That is all.

Ramona Progress

2010-08-07T01:54:00.000-07:00

Working on another Ramona Flowers drawing. Will definitely finish sometime soon!

Aug.7 - Minimal progress. Still iffy on what to do with the limbs... Hair lines might need slight bit more tweaking. My right hand is killing me.

Aug.8 - Almost done with the lines. Extended the canvas to make it a full body shot. Mmmmight change my mind about that decision later and crop it out. Should be 100% done with the lines tomorrow, then comes full colors, shades, background.

Fun Fact

2010-08-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

I only use about 3 colors in each of my paintings (digital and traditional). Call it laziness or ignorance, but I just like to keep it simple.

dive

2010-07-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

into the ether

digitize

2010-07-12T00:14:00.001-07:00

Did this one after watching Tron for the first time. Mind. BLOWN. I loved it.

Sailor Moon

2010-07-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

I drew Sailor Moon. Because... I drew Sailor Moon.

family

2010-07-12T00:08:00.001-07:00

Sis, her fiance Kirill, and Colby the dog

based on a few Facebook photos

explore

2010-07-12T00:04:00.000-07:00

SCREWWWW the post a day thing. I'll just post as often as I can.

Oh fuck

2010-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Sudden realization:

I hate ALL my work. Could hardly stand looking at my gallery. Head. EXPLODE.

I'm going to go read some Scott Pilgrim, then draw some more.

Red

2010-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Another TegakiE thinger

Winchester

2010-06-20T03:23:00.001-07:00

Done on TegakiE. I need more practice with color. Much.

blue

2010-06-19T00:40:00.001-07:00

'nother tegakiE thing. Don't ask, because I honestly don't know.

tegakie

2010-06-18T20:39:00.001-07:00

Just signed up for TegakiE and did this in between another dig piece in Sai. Loving the opacity options

creep

2010-06-15T23:43:00.001-07:00

Messing with ink. Suffice to say, I got this shit everywhere.

Muse

2010-06-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

Billie Lapin

2010-06-09T01:02:00.000-07:00

Another request from my number one fan, Squiffies!

Their character, Billie Lapin.

2010-06-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

Sick Muse

2010-06-06T03:43:00.000-07:00

2010-06-05T21:06:00.001-07:00

Trail

2010-06-04T02:26:00.001-07:00

This took me way too long. I refuse to work on it any longer. Also, I accidentally saved when I merged all the layers and closed SAI. BLAAAAAARGGGHHH

Working on it

2010-06-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

Started a digital piece today, but kept getting sidetracked with other stuff. I'm most probably going to finish it off tomorrow, which is technically today. Yeah. Well, okay then.

In other news, I can totally relate to Scott Pilgrim right now. I'll just leave on that note.

Squiffies

2010-05-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

My first sketch request from Squiffies!! The character design was right up my alley and I enjoyed drawing her!

Also, I am open to requests. For free! I need the practice

Cinnamon

2010-05-27T03:30:00.000-07:00

Expectations

2010-05-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is my Jap final, which is the last thing I've gotta do this semester. After that, I'll play catchup with my posts, so keep an eye out!

Update!

2010-05-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER LONG ASS PAPER DOWNNNNNNNNNN

All that's left:

2 page extra credit paper on Pluto (one of my favorite manga, haha!)
Study for Jap Final!

Super psyched for summer. Except I've gotta find a job. Preferably at a comic store. Yikes!

Mathilda

2010-05-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

Half of a drawing I never finished...

Mathilda from Leon: The Professional

Will finish someday! ...I hope.

Posemaniacs

2010-05-22T00:51:00.000-07:00

Some sketches from posemaniacs. I need a new scanner; it couldn't even pick up the shading I did here.

Dude

2010-05-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

I can draw guys... I just never know what to actually dress them in. ...Because I have a shitty sense of fashion

2010-05-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

Home Stretch

2010-05-19T23:35:00.001-07:00

1 long ass paper down!

All that's left is..

1900 word philosophy paper
2 page extra credit paper for Japanese
Finish this painting (based off my Sentry post)
Study for Japanese final

Not that much if you think about it...

Anyway, I'm going to have to play catch-up with my posts once I'm done with this semester. Stay tuned!

chillax

2010-05-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

NEVERMIND THE DATE

Look up.

2010-05-18T00:32:00.000-07:00

Nevermind that broken foot

More ferry sketches

2010-05-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'll post 2 in here. These were done in about 10 mins each.

This one, I particularly like. Also, the boat was particularly shaky at the time. Just thought I should mention that.

Delays

2010-05-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

Finals and final papers... Expect a super update sometime soon.

Displeased

2010-05-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

Quickie

Distracted Ogre

2010-05-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Done while I was drunk celebrating a pal's birthday. Went to Barcade in Brooklyn, which was awesome. A bar with a bunch of old school arcade machines. You can't go wrong there! I usually draw monsters while under the influence of something.

POP

2010-05-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ferry jumble

2010-05-13T21:59:00.001-07:00

Scattered ferry sketches. Wasn't particularly focused that day.

Mostly Ink

2010-05-12T22:37:00.001-07:00

Mindless doodles~

Catch up

2010-05-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

Playing catch-up with my posts! :O

Shore

2010-05-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

Larry Shore, my Internet & Society professor. Done while people were doing presentations. Probably took about 5-10 mins.

Caught Again

2010-05-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Sad girl chilling in kneesocks! 'Nuff said!

Without

2010-05-08T23:58:00.001-07:00

Been second-guessing myself lately. A lot.

Jolly

2010-05-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

2-D

2010-05-06T18:33:00.001-07:00

Just a small headshot this time... of The Gorillaz's 2D! I need a bigger scanner...

Bleh

2010-05-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

A loose quickie. That's what she said!

Sentry

2010-05-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

Idea for my next painting. Guess this one's going to be vertically oriented. ...Shoulda got the 24x36 canvas rather than the 24x30. Shoot.

Ya know

2010-05-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

More of the usual. Just mindless doodling. Kinda.

Terrace Drawings

2010-05-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

Was a nice day out, so i went in my terrace and started drawing for a while. Still not so good drawing vehicles, but I like how that house came out. Also, my sketchbook is too big for my scanner, hence the weird shadows.

Clobberin' Time

2010-05-01T23:13:00.001-07:00

I plan to do more with it...

Ethereal

2010-04-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

Almost forgot about this one! I really liked how it came out.

Shortstack

2010-04-29T21:17:00.001-07:00

Just a short, buff, naked dude. Whatevs.

Hit-Girl

2010-04-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Always liked the costume in the comic better. Did enjoy the movie, though!

Page o' girls

2010-04-27T22:16:00.001-07:00

Need more practice with the ol' brush pen.

You Just Don't Exist

2010-04-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

This one's from april 13th. I liked how it came out, started inking it, screwed up outside the circle with the scribbles, and now I don't tlike it as much. I still like it, but not as much. Yup.

Spark

2010-04-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Don't smoke, kids.

Serene

2010-04-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

Shit! Forgot to upload one yesterday. Not off to a great start.

Here's a serene scene. I liked drawing it, but decided against going in and drawing all the grass.

420

2010-04-23T01:14:00.000-07:00

Whoops, totally forgot about the sketch post a day.

Here's the first. I thought it was appropriate considering the date.

Daily posts?

2010-04-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

So, thinking about updating this more often, perhaps posting a sketch a day. It would definitely encourage me to keep up the daily drawings, and motivate me to step them up a bit, in terms of quality. Perhaps I'll start as soon as my current sketchbook runs out of pages (3 pages left). Here's hoping I follow through!

Helix Nebula

2010-03-30T00:27:00.000-07:00

Worked from an old scan I stumbled upon in one of my folders. Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of that nebula.

Ramona V. Flowers (Final?)

2010-03-03T17:44:00.001-08:00

Hopefully the final version?

Ramona V. Flowers

2010-03-03T14:32:00.001-08:00

Worked pretty hard on this, foregoing all my school assignments... which I need to get on pretty soon.

Also, when is my local comic store going to stock volume 5?? They ordered it 2 weeks ago!

Ramona V. Flowers (C) Bryan Lee O'Malley

Here's a textless version:

Another edit. Added to the background:

Ocean Girl

2010-02-15T22:49:00.001-08:00

Fanart of Emi Lenox's Ocean Girl!

Circle Circle, Dot Dot

2009-12-30T00:27:00.000-08:00

Colored version of a previous pencil sketch!

Reflecting

2009-12-09T11:23:00.002-08:00

..or something like that

11-29-09

Assassin

2009-12-09T11:23:00.001-08:00

Just messing around

12-5-09

Memory

2009-12-09T11:22:00.001-08:00

Passerby drawn from memory

12-7-09

Bass

2009-12-09T11:21:00.001-08:00

11-24-09

11-23-09

2009-11-24T03:46:00.000-08:00

Was flipping through my previous sketchbook and saw this girl that I've draw several times. So, I decided to revisit the character once again. I should really come up with a name for her

Suspenders

2009-11-24T03:44:00.000-08:00

Why do I always draw them so sad? I should work on that, haha

from 11-22-09

Painting Ideas

2009-11-07T19:32:00.001-08:00

Ideas for my second painting assignment. Going with the bottom one, since the monster's pose in the top one seems plain silly. Also, I feel that closing the distance has a more intimidating feel, as well as establishing the intense glowing of the girl a bit more. Could use some feedback if anyone reads this!

The Creature

2009-10-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

I enjoy drawing pretty girls. When I'm not doing that, I draw monsters.

The Patient

2009-10-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

from 10-22-09

PUNCH

2009-10-18T13:00:00.001-07:00

some action practice

New Kate

2009-10-18T12:59:00.001-07:00

Revisit

2009-10-05T20:07:00.001-07:00

Tweaking an old character I just remembered. Kate was her name.

Concern

2009-10-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

from 9-20-09

Layla M

2009-09-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

Layla Miller, once more
She knows stuff.

Suspension

2009-09-19T16:39:00.002-07:00

Sad schoolgirl suspended in air?