JFlah's Blunders

Last year I did a Christmas wreath at a painting party and gave it to a friend. This year, her mother said she wanted one. Here is the finished product with an "H" in the middle to indicate their last name. Nearly ran out of red paint when I was doing this...

Shortly before Christmas there was lots of painting happening. Here's another project that I did early December 2015.

Ok - so there are several stellar creatives out there in the world of motion graphics so it's hard to pick just one to say that he/she is my favorite, but I have to say that Dan Stevers is certainly in the top three. Not only does he make beautiful videos for worship services, he has several really helpful tutorials that I've enjoyed using when I've needed to brush up on my use of Adobe AfterEffects and Premier Pro. Here's a small taste of his aesthetic... Merry Christmas!

Finished late last night. My sister came to help some. Were it not for that, I'd not have completed it. I got in there to start around 2pm and painted till about 8:30pm. I'm thinking it was worth the effort. Turned out cute.

I'm about to paint a set piece for the upcoming children's choir musical (A Tree Lot Christmas) and have done lots of sketches. Plan to put some paint to the piece within the next few days - probably Saturday since I can't seem to get out of the office during the week to work on it and figure it will take 8-10 hours. Keep an eye out for pictures of the process if you're interested. Here are the preliminary idea sketches with the one I'm probably going to follow first. Can't put a Christmas tree in the design because that's a part of the story - Carmichael doesn't have a tree and doesn't particularly want one but has allowed the kids to set up their tree lot beside his store with hopes that it will attract more business. Simplified everything as much as I thought I could. When I get to painting, I may remove the top window in favor of brick since a lot of that section will be covered by the striped canopy and the decorations they plan to string ...

Ok - so we just finalized the logo for the rebranded student ministry here. We nixed the old  name (so no more "Crossover" Student Ministries) and are opting for the simplicity of what people already call it: "The Student Ministry" - I know, not particularly clever but it works and I think it's fine. Didn't sketch much for the design of this one. It's a spin on the main church Z-mark we created at the beginning of this year. Below is the progression and the finalized versions. Took a little while to choose a font then we were off to the races. The colors are going to be in flux as the plan is to simply adapt it to its surroundings each time it's used. Also, when we do shirts we're going to try to focus on keeping the high school's colors in the design so the kids can wear them on spirit day. Final one is circled. Started off with the round versions and ended up going with out the circle. And here's the first layout using the n...

Paint and Pj's painting for this year. Haven't decided if I'm going to add text or not. Here's a close up of the cutie snowman. Saw this great article on Muddy Colors . I've come across this trouble so often that I wonder why even I have started to devalue my own work. Now I know that part of the reason that it happens to me with the regularity that it does is because I'm in a "cul-de-sac" design career - and to exasperate the problem, I work full time at a non-profit where the norm is that people volunteer their time/talents. "Photo by JS Choi of he-who-will-not-be-named doing his brilliant thing at Illuxcon. So perfect and hilarious." Picture and quote from Muddy Colors Blog This video perfectly illustrates what it would be like for someone to try to treat other businesses and professionals like many clients try to treat artists and designers. And I highly recommend that you read the whole article at Muddy Co...

Sketched in blue pencil on white paper - photoshopped onto textured paper. Still doesn't look enough like the model for me to be satisfied with the rendering - lots of practice still needed. Here's the source image: Sketch on left is by Julio Caesar. 

Sketch from vintage photo of family members. Here's the original - doesn't really look like her much at all but again, I sure enjoyed myself.

Ok - so my observation skills aren't what they used to be... At least it looks like a tiger.

Actually looked at something to do this one - see source here . The sketch only has the "spirit" of the original.

You know that story about Jacob moving the stone from the mouth of the well when he caught a glimpse of Rachel? I keep thinking he was like a super hero.

So, yeah - new student minister means new student ministry logo. It is way past time for an update. This is the first page of sketches for this project... donno if I'm running in the right direction with any of this mess just yet - I'm sure this is a page of flops, but I sure enjoyed working on it today. Hopefully one of the concepts will be right down his alley so I can start digitizing next week. Wish we could rebrand the Crossing building - that mark could have used some serious art direction. As much as I sometimes struggle with constructive criticism, I have to beat my pride down because I know that it is necessary for my work to be the best that it can be. When I don't have someone who can push me towards what's best, my work isn't nearly as polished.

Sermon titles and matching bulletin covers are a weekly task that can often be a fun challenge. That was definitely the case this week. I typically start with the layout that I have to print on the bulletin then adapt the layout to the SD slide format. These are a few from this week's attempts. Ok - so this is the "get the juices flowing" one. Pastor's tag line made me think of this funny little guy. Added the mites falling from his hand and a few shadows and voila - instant silliness. This was the second rendition including one of my favorite fonts . The picture is from here . This is the final rendition. Lots of texture and the mites falling. Ended up with six or seven adjustment levels before I found something that I thought would work. Haven't printed one yet, so might end up with a few more before I'm absolutely done with this. Last week, pastor couldn't bring himself to use what I'd created on screen since it reminded him ...

Ok, so this is a pencil sketch and not in ink, but the point is to draw, right? At least this one isn't on a napkin.

Didn't have paper for this one either... used the back of my bill - HA - will do better for the next one, I promise.

Sketched on a napkin... never seem to have paper handy when I want it. These critters are lopsided, but were fun to do. Boy! Do I need to practice or what?

Just wrapped up a fun freelance job with a client. Here are the two finals along with some behind-the-curtain sketches and preliminary work ups so you can see how long this process turned out to be - I ran through a great number of bad versions before I hit upon something that was even remotely close to what he wanted. What can I say? He said to "throw some darts" and I threw lots of them and floundered around for a long while before hitting upon something that worked. There was a great deal of research involved in this project since I had never done anything that was supposed to target a Native American audience. My main inspiration for the finals were beautiful Hopi designs, especially their beautiful jewelry.  The bear paw represents strength and wisdom , two adjectives that I know should be held closely when dealing with financial decisions. One of the key guidelines given when I began this design project was that the design be "strong, powerful, masculine, ...

Sketched this while listening to an audio book. Isn't nearly as nice as Vanessa Lemen's original but I enjoyed myself.

Found an article in a strange round about way after finding out that the Dan Stevers video we've purchased at work to supplement our Christmas program graphics was actually animated by Jason Watson . On Jason's blog he's written several great articles, one of which is a post about how to motivate creatives . I'm with him on each one of the points he makes and wish that administrators and decision makers were more aware of the truths represented within that article. The three key points of the article are: Provide clear/decisive direction to your creative partner. Make your creative partner a part of the creative planning process. Pay your creative well. Jason fleshes these points out in a logical and thoughtful way that is kind to both the creatives and their employers and I very much recommend it to you. I haven't read the other articles he's got on his blog, though I plan to over the next several days, as those look instructive and well thought o...

Am about to launch off into designing yet another logo at work. The women's ministry has gone through a few changes and they're looking for another mark. The group's lead has asked for a heart and a cross. We can go that route, but those images have been done so many times over that they're hard to do with any originality. I hope she will be more interested in the other ideas. I'd prefer to have their new logo be a spin off of the new church mark. Anyhow, here are a few preliminary super rough sketches. Here are some more...