JFlah's Blunders

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,